Globally, cancer and cancer-related complications affect millions of patients every year, making cancer one of the leading international health concerns. In fact, the World Health Organization reports that among economically-developed nations, cancer is ranked second behind cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death. Cancer, which is the abnormal growth of cells in a patient's body, may have the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body via local spread or through blood or lymphatic systems to secondary tissue sites. Such metastatic tumors or cancer that has spread from the primary malignancy site are often the cause of cancer-related death. Typically, patient prognosis depends on a variety of aspects, including the type of cancer and location of the primary malignancy, the stage of the cancer (e.g., size of primary malignant tumor, degree of spread from primary cancer origin, etc.) at the time of diagnosis, the grade of the cancer (e.g., the degree of cellular abnormality or other characteristics of the cancer cells, etc.), genetic traits/mutations and/or heterogeneity of the cancer, patient's age and/or health condition prior to diagnosis, and a patient's particular response to treatment. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that increased stress experienced by the patient, either following diagnosis or chronic stress experienced by the patient prior to diagnosis, has a negative impact on cancer progression and outcome.
Treatment following diagnosis is dependent on many of the above-described factors, but generally includes surgical removal of detected cancerous tissue, chemotherapy regimens and other anti-cancer agents, and/or radiation therapy of affected tissue. While these conventional treatments and therapies address removal and/or killing of cancerous cells and tissues, they can be ineffective at removing all cancerous cells from the body and in a manner that prevents metastasis and/or reoccurrence, especially in highly invasive cancers. Additionally, these primary treatments as well as long-term maintenance therapies (e.g., hormone therapy for breast cancer patients) can cause undesirable side effects and loss of quality of life. Accordingly, there is a need for alternative and/or adjunctive treatments that effectively reduce or inhibit the progression of cancer (e.g., inhibit metastasis, suspend or slow tumor growth, etc.) as well as provide better prognosis and outcomes for cancer patients with limited or no side effects.